The Shelby American (Winter 2021)

Shelby Mustang, so I purchased a $32K tribute. But it wasn’t your aver- age tribute – it had everything a real Shelby possessed but a VIN #, right down to the plexiglass rear windows, traction bars, functional rear brake scoops, tach and Shelby American kick plates. The Candyapple Red and Gold paint was immaculate, the Hi-Po en- gine sounded great and the 9˝ rear end fitted magnificently with the 4-speed. It even had period correct A/C that kept my wife cool during the Texas summers. Admirers constantly quizzed me while I had my clone out for a spin, “ What does the GT-350H signify? ’” In short, they learned all about Carroll Shelby and SAAC. You can’t measure the pleasure I received while driving this car. And, I never tried to pawn it off as ‘the real thing.’ But the original owner did. Ned Scudder, our venerable Cobra Registrar, had this to say on our sub- ject. “ Clearly, there are two schools of thought on clones/replicas. The people who can’t swing a genuine Cobra love the next best thing, and that’s great. But many of the folks who have legit- imate ‘60s Cobras aren’t as supportive, and I have seen many examples of why that might be so . “ For more years than I can count, far too many owners of clones/replicas choose to identify their cars as a ‘1965 Cobra’ at any car gathering they may attend. And when asked about it, they defend their claim vehemently. For ex- ample, ‘It’s not a mirage, is it? Of course it’s real, you moron! ’ “ This frequently gives a lot of peo- ple the wrong impression about what a genuine Cobra is really all about. Bear in mind, a number of these ‘repli- cas’ are anything but, and reflect poor workmanship and incorrect materials throughout. Never knew a genuine Cobra had fiberglass matting in the engine bay. Didn’t know the uphol- stery was cheap naugahyde vs leather. Weren’t aware ‘60s Cobras had double roll bars that stuck up six inches above the driver’s head. Haven’t seen a car where the wheels/tires aren’t centered in the wheel opening. These are some of the ideas people come away with when the owners of kits/replicas/clones swear up and down that their cars are ‘genuine.’ Maybe it shouldn’t bother the owners of the legitimate cars but it does, since as a group we love the cars and don’t enjoy having their positive image di- luted by examples that utterly fail to meet the standards established years ago .” The original owner of my Hertz clone attempted to sell this completely The SHELBY AMERICAN Winter 20210 54